‘Billions’ Season 2 Finale Viewership Virtually Even With 2016 Ender

In business, nothing says “I love you” like cold hard cash and in television, nothing tastes richer than rising ratings – and the Season 2 finale of Billions had both and a jail cell full of revenge thrown in.

As Paul Giamatti’s ambitious U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes bets it all on finally taking down Damian Lewis’ billionaire hedge funder Bobby Axelrod, it was scorched Earth time on the Showtime drama. Except when it came to viewership where things were blooming like a spring day.

Like a strong stock, the “Ball In Hand” episode 12 of Season 2 of Billions was up all round with 1.02 million watching at 10 PM last night as baseball and the NBA Playoffs raged elsewhere on cable. That viewership for the Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin created series was up 0.7% from last year’s finale of April 1o, 2016.

While nice to be up even a touch that down in any way, of greater boasting value to the CBS-owned premium cabler was that the end of Season 2 of Billions was up 35% in its sets of eyeballs over the Season 2 premiere of February 19. It is worth noting that the season opener had been available online since February 9. Over all its plays, last night’s Billions earned 1.32 million viewers, up 30% from the S2 opener.